Indicators proposed

This note describes the current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions indicators in the WDI and proposes a new set of indicators using a different data source. The indicators are evaluated using the inclusion criteria.

Currently, 37 indicators on GHG emissions are included in the WDI. The proposal to revise the set of indicators and the data source is due to several shortcomings of the current set of indicators:

many indicators are outdated and no longer updated
many indicators are not reported annually and/or do not start in 1960
indicators from different sources cannot be compared due to different definitions/units
country coverage for some indicators is low

The following 37 GHG related indicators are currently in the WDI database:

Series code	Description	GHG	Sector	Source	Time coverage
EN.ATM.CO2E.KD.GD	CO2 emissions (kg per 2010 US$ of GDP)	CO2	All	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.CO2E.KT	Total CO2 emissions (thousand metric tons of CO2 excluding Land-Use Change and Forestry)	CO2	All	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.CO2E.PC	CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita)	CO2	All	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.CO2E.PP.GD	CO2 emissions (kg per PPP $ of GDP)	CO2	All	CDIAC / CAIT (?)	1960-2019
EN.ATM.CO2E.PP.GD.KD	CO2 emissions (kg per 2017 PPP $ of GDP)	CO2	All	CDIAC / CAIT (?)	1960-2019
EN.ATM.GHGO.KT.CE	Other greenhouse gas emissions, HFC, PFC and SF6 (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent)	Fluorinated gases	All	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1970-2016 (not annual)
EN.ATM.GHGO.ZG	Other greenhouse gas emissions (% change from 1990)	Fluorinated gases	All	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1991-2012
EN.ATM.GHGT.KT.CE	Total greenhouse gas emissions (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent excluding Land-Use Change and Forestry)	All	All	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.GHGT.ZG	Total greenhouse gas emissions (% change from 1990)	All	All	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1991-2012
EN.ATM.HFCG.KT.CE	HFC gas emissions (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent)	Fluorinated gases	All	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1990-2010 (not annual)
EN.ATM.METH.KT.CE	Total methane emissions (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent excluding Land-Use Change and Forestry)	CH4	All	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.METH.ZG	Methane emissions (% change from 1990)	CH4	All	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1991-2012
EN.ATM.NOXE.KT.CE	Total nitrous oxide emissions (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent excluding Land-Use Change and Forestry)	N2O	All	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.NOXE.ZG	Nitrous oxide emissions (% change from 1990)	N2O	All	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1991-2012
EN.ATM.PFCG.KT.CE	PFC gas emissions (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent)	Fluorinated gases	All	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1990-2010 (not annual)
EN.ATM.SF6G.KT.CE	SF6 gas emissions (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent)	Fluorinated gases	All	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1990-2010 (not annual)
EN.ATM.METH.AG.KT.CE	Agricultural methane emissions (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent)	CH4	Agriculture	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.NOXE.AG.KT.CE	Agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent)	N2O	Agriculture	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.NOXE.AG.ZS	Agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (% of total)	N2O	Agriculture	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1970-2008
EN.ATM.CO2E.EG.ZS	CO2 intensity (kg per kg of oil equivalent energy use)	CO2	Energy	CDIAC	1990-2015
EN.ATM.CO2E.GF.KT	CO2 emissions from gaseous fuel consumption (kt)	CO2	Energy	CDIAC	1960-2016
EN.ATM.CO2E.GF.ZS	CO2 emissions from gaseous fuel consumption (% of total)	CO2	Energy	CDIAC	1960-2016
EN.ATM.CO2E.LF.KT	CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption (kt)	CO2	Energy	CDIAC	1960-2016
EN.ATM.CO2E.LF.ZS	CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption (% of total)	CO2	Energy	CDIAC	1960-2016
EN.ATM.CO2E.SF.KT	CO2 emissions from solid fuel consumption (kt)	CO2	Energy	CDIAC	1960-2016
EN.ATM.CO2E.SF.ZS	CO2 emissions from solid fuel consumption (% of total)	CO2	Energy	CDIAC	1960-2016
EN.ATM.METH.AG.ZS	Agricultural methane emissions (% of total)	CH4	Energy	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1970-2008
EN.ATM.METH.EG.KT.CE	Methane emissions in energy sector (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent)	CH4	Energy	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.METH.EG.ZS	Energy related methane emissions (% of total)	CH4	Energy	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1970-2008
EN.ATM.NOXE.EG.KT.CE	Nitrous oxide emissions in energy sector (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent)	N2O	Energy	CDIAC / CAIT	1960-2019
EN.ATM.NOXE.EG.ZS	Nitrous oxide emissions in energy sector (% of total)	N2O	Energy	EDGAR (EC JRC/PBL)	1970-2008
EN.CLC.GHGR.MT.CE	GHG net emissions removals by LUCF (Mt of CO2 equivalent)	All	LUCF	UNFCCCC	1990-2009
EN.CO2.BLDG.ZS	CO2 emissions from residential buildings and commercial and public services (% of total fuel combustion)	CO2	Other	IEA	1960-2014
EN.CO2.ETOT.ZS	CO2 emissions from electricity and heat production, total (% of total fuel combustion)	CO2	Other	IEA	1960-2014
EN.CO2.MANF.ZS	CO2 emissions from manufacturing industries and construction (% of total fuel combustion)	CO2	Other	IEA	1960-2014
EN.CO2.OTHX.ZS	CO2 emissions from other sectors, excluding residential buildings and commercial and public services (% of total fuel combustion)	CO2	Other	IEA	1960-2014
EN.CO2.TRAN.ZS	CO2 emissions from transport (% of total fuel combustion)	CO2	Other	IEA	1960-2014

Breakdown of current indicators by GHG and sector

Adequate coverage

Number of economies

198 out of 217 WDI economies are available in the dataset. The missing economies are the following:

The WDI includes 217 of which 198 are included in the PIK dataset. The country coverage for the PIK data is 91 percent.

The following WDI countries are not included in the PIK dataset. Note that most of these countries are overseas territories, which are likely included in the total of the cuntry or economy they belong to (exceptions are West Bank and Gaza and Kosovo).

long_name	ISO3
American Samoa	ASM
Bermuda	BMU
Cayman Islands	CYM
Channel Islands	CHI
Curacao	CUW
Faroe Islands	FRO
French Polynesia	PYF
Gibraltar	GIB
Greenland	GRL
Guam	GUM
Isle of Man	IMN
Kosovo	XKX
New Caledonia	NCL
Northern Mariana Islands	MNP
Puerto Rico	PRI
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	SXM
St. Martin (French part)	MAF
Virgin Islands (U.S.)	VIR
West Bank and Gaza	PSE

Make LMIC country list

The PIK data include 133 LMIC countries, which is 98 percent of the total LIMC countries in WDI.

Absolute latest year

The absolute latest year in the PIK data is 2021.

Median latest year

The median latest year in the PIK data is 2021. This is the same for the data without extrapolation.

Span of years

The span of years in the PIK data is 62.

Non-missing data

Adequate coverage statistics for current indicators

The table below compares the PIK data with the current GHG indicators in WDI on the “Adequate coverage” criteria.

High quality

Source

Released March 15, 2023: Gütschow, J.; Pflüger, M. (2023): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series v2.4.2 (1750-2021). zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7727475.

Earlier versions: Released Feb 20, 2023: Gütschow, J.; Pflüger, M. (2023): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series v2.4.1 (1750-2021). zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7585420.

Released October 17, 2022: Gütschow, J.; Pflüger, M. (2022): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series v2.4 (1750-2021). zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7179775.

Released September 22, 2021: Gütschow, J.; Günther, A.; Pflüger, M. (2021): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2019). v2.3.1. zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5494497

Released August 30, 2021: Gütschow, J.; Günther, A.; Pflüger, M. (2021): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series v2.3 (1850-2019). zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.5175154.

Released February 9, 2021: Gütschow, J.; Günther, A.; Jeffery, L.; Gieseke, R. (2021): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series v2.2 (1850-2018). zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4479172.

Gütschow, Johannes; Jeffery, Louise; Gieseke, Robert; Günther, Annika (2019): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1850-2017). v2.1. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.018.

Gütschow, J., Jeffery, M. L., Gieseke, R., Gebel, R., Stevens, D., Krapp, M., and Rocha, M. (2016): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 8, 571–603, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-8-571-2016.

Unique visitors

No unique visitors for new series.

Scoring of current indicators

Using hybrid scoring considering time and country coverage and usage statistics ranging between 0 (worst) and 4 (best).

Indicator.Code	hybrid_score_wgtd	geographic_score_hybrid	temporal_score_hybrid	completeness_score_hybrid	usage_score_hybrid
EN.ATM.CO2E.EG.ZS	3.160049	3.368120	2.803704	3.440714	3.027657
EN.ATM.CO2E.GF.KT	3.377966	3.458105	3.211111	3.830286	3.012364
EN.ATM.CO2E.GF.ZS	3.375166	3.458105	3.211111	3.830286	3.001161
EN.ATM.CO2E.KD.GD	3.331413	3.454071	3.211111	3.640000	3.020468
EN.ATM.CO2E.KT	3.449925	3.458105	3.211111	3.830286	3.300200
EN.ATM.CO2E.LF.KT	3.383786	3.458105	3.211111	3.830286	3.035642
EN.ATM.CO2E.LF.ZS	3.375545	3.458105	3.211111	3.830286	3.002679
EN.ATM.CO2E.PC	3.624554	3.458105	3.211111	3.829000	4.000000
EN.ATM.CO2E.PP.GD	3.353125	3.451489	2.988889	3.900429	3.071693
EN.ATM.CO2E.PP.GD.KD	3.341344	3.428331	2.988889	3.911286	3.036872
EN.ATM.CO2E.SF.KT	3.376519	3.458105	3.211111	3.830286	3.006574
EN.ATM.CO2E.SF.ZS	3.378718	3.458105	3.211111	3.830286	3.015369
EN.ATM.GHGO.KT.CE	3.113615	3.435350	2.096131	3.922571	3.000408
EN.ATM.GHGO.ZG	2.813390	3.383272	1.940575	3.999714	1.930000
EN.ATM.GHGT.KT.CE	3.138202	3.445504	2.096131	3.917143	3.094030
EN.ATM.GHGT.ZG	3.081786	3.439323	1.940575	3.928143	3.019101
EN.ATM.HFCG.KT.CE	2.559285	3.162509	1.710614	2.353000	3.011015
EN.ATM.METH.AG.KT.CE	3.067039	3.407000	1.850692	4.000000	3.010463
EN.ATM.METH.AG.ZS	3.069284	3.431237	1.843285	3.993714	3.008901
EN.ATM.METH.EG.KT.CE	3.065645	3.407000	1.850692	4.000000	3.004887
EN.ATM.METH.EG.ZS	3.067312	3.431237	1.843285	3.993714	3.001010
EN.ATM.METH.KT.CE	3.138859	3.449149	2.096131	3.980286	3.029871
EN.ATM.METH.ZG	3.095823	3.431237	1.940575	4.000000	3.011479
EN.ATM.NOXE.AG.KT.CE	3.065075	3.407000	1.850692	4.000000	3.002610
EN.ATM.NOXE.AG.ZS	3.065909	3.423860	1.843285	3.993714	3.002779
EN.ATM.NOXE.EG.KT.CE	2.896090	3.407000	1.850692	4.000000	2.326667
EN.ATM.NOXE.EG.ZS	2.846881	3.423860	1.843285	3.993714	2.126667
EN.ATM.NOXE.KT.CE	3.148933	3.442105	2.096131	3.980429	3.077068
EN.ATM.NOXE.ZG	3.091339	3.423860	1.940575	4.000000	3.000922
EN.ATM.PFCG.KT.CE	2.376531	3.162509	1.710614	2.353000	2.280000
EN.ATM.SF6G.KT.CE	2.556630	3.162509	1.710614	2.353000	3.000395
EN.CLC.GHGR.MT.CE	2.744833	3.369365	1.702875	2.904000	3.003093
EN.CO2.BLDG.ZS	3.116276	3.175956	2.629630	3.651000	3.008519
EN.CO2.ETOT.ZS	3.118472	3.175956	2.629630	3.651000	3.017301
EN.CO2.MANF.ZS	3.119064	3.175956	2.629630	3.651000	3.019672
EN.CO2.OTHX.ZS	3.114485	3.175956	2.629630	3.651000	3.001355
EN.CO2.TRAN.ZS	3.126766	3.175956	2.629630	3.651000	3.050478

Time and country coverage of existing indicators showing that latest year of many indicators is 2014 or 2018 and country coverage is low for some indicators.

Issues with current data sources/indicators

GHG indicators combine two different sources, that create a jump in the series due to different methodologies used in the two series. Furthermore, the current series are more volatile and the volatility does not always have explaining factors. Volatility partially occurs because of the way the series is compiled by CAIT. CAIT (and other sources) compile their series using different primary sources. The sources can be broadly divided into country-reported data and third-party data. Differences between these two sources can be large and CAIT fills missing data from one source with missing data from another sources, which explains in part the observed volatility in the data. CAIT does not use official inventories reported to UNFCCC, PIK does for countries where available.

Licensing issues and data availability: indicators from IEA are distributed under a license that restricts redistribution and only available until 2014.

The official SDG indicators on GHG emissions are INDICATOR 9.4.1 CO2 emission per unit of value added and INDICATOR 13.2.2 Total greenhouse gas emissions per year (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal/database). also licensing terms and SDGs. The respective sources are UNIDO and UNFCCC. Indicator 9.4.1 does not reflect

Definitions

Kyoto basket greenhouse gases

Code	Description
CO2	Carbon Dioxide
CH4	Methane
FGASES	Fluorinated Gases (Hydrofluorocarbons + Perflurocarbons)
N2O	Nitrous Oxide
SF6	Sulfur Hexafluoride

Global warming potentials

Global Warming Potentials (GWP) are the factors used to convert other GHGs into CO2e to make them comparable w.r.t. the effect on global warming. GWP is a measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2). GWPs are estimates and different sets of GWPs are used. We use the GWPs from the fourth IPCC assessment report:

GHG	GWP
CO2	1
CH4	25
N2O	298

Category codes

Category descriptions using IPCC 1996 terminology.

Code	Description
0	National Total
M.0.EL	National Total, excluding LULUCF
1	Total Energy
1.A	Fuel Combustion Activities
1.B	Fugitive Emissions from Fuels
2	Industrial Processes
3	Solvent and Other Product Use
4	Agriculture
5	Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF)
6	Waste
7	Other

Data on LULUCF has high uncertainty and we therefore exlcude.

Data sources for GHG

All sources rely on the same primary sources for data.

PIK PRIMAP - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
- All Kyoto GHGs by country, year and category
- URL https://zenodo.org/record/5494497#.YZJPvmC0uUk
- Time coverage: data from 1850-2019 (check https://zenodo.org/record/4479172#.YV765ZpNeUk published in September 2021)
- Countries: 216 countries
- License: CC BY 4.0
CDIAC - Carbon Dioxide Information analysis Center
- CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel burning, cement production, and gas flaring
- URL https://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/trends/emis/meth_reg.html
- Time coverage: data from 1751 until 2014
- Countries: ~180 (1960-1990), ~215 (1991-2014)
- License: https://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/permission.html
CAIT - Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (Climate Watch / World Resources Institute):
- all sectors and gases
- URL https://www.climatewatchdata.org/ghg-emissions?end_year=2018&start_year=1990
- Time coverage: data from 1990-2018
- Countries: 197 countries (parties to UNFCCC)
- License:
GCP - Global Carbon Project: https://www.icos-cp.eu/science-and-impact/global-carbon-budget/2018
- CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion, cement production, and bunkers.
- URL https://www.icos-cp.eu/science-and-impact/global-carbon-budget/2018
- Time coverage: data from 1960-2018
- Countries: 229 countries and regions
- License:
IEA - International Energy Agency:
- URL https://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/trends/emis/meth_reg.html
- Time coverage: data from 1971-2018 (until 2019 for OECD countries)
- Countries: OECD countries, total 145 countries
- License:

Data uncertainty

According to the Working Group III Contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion are known within 8% uncertainty (90% confidence interval). CO2 emissions from FOLU (forestry and other land use) have very large uncertainties associated with them in the order of ± 50%. Uncertainty for global emissions of CH4, N2O and the F-gases has been estimated as 20%, 60% and 20% respectively. For the PIK dataset, regional deforestation emissions are downscaled to the country level using estimates of the deforested area obtained from potential vegetation and calculations for the needed agricultural land. Accordingly levels of uncertainty are quite high for earlier years of data (closer to 1850).

Proposal for WDI GHG emissions indicators

Temporal coverage

The dataset covers the years 1750-2019, where a considerable number of values 2019 are numerically extrapolated. As the WDI starts in 1960, only values from 1960 are considered.

Country coverage

The WDI includes 217 of which 198 are included in the PIK dataset. The following WDI countries are not included in the PIK dataset:

long_name	ISO3
American Samoa	ASM
Bermuda	BMU
Cayman Islands	CYM
Channel Islands	CHI
Curacao	CUW
Faroe Islands	FRO
French Polynesia	PYF
Gibraltar	GIB
Greenland	GRL
Guam	GUM
Isle of Man	IMN
Kosovo	XKX
New Caledonia	NCL
Northern Mariana Islands	MNP
Puerto Rico	PRI
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	SXM
St. Martin (French part)	MAF
Virgin Islands (U.S.)	VIR
West Bank and Gaza	PSE

New indicators

Scores of new indicators

All 26 indicators have the same score of 3.571429 when using the dataset with extrapolated values.

Decisions to make

Sectors / GHG combinations

Some sector/GHG combinations are not common as not all gases are produced in each sector. Therefore, some combinations could be dropped.

Proposal: Include the following combinations:

All GHG – all sectors, M.0.EL excluding LUCF
CO2 - all sectors
CH4 – all sectors
N2O – all sectors
Other (F gases + SF6) – all sectors
LUCF separately
CH4 – Energy (+ industry)
CH4 – Agriculture / livestock
CO2 – Energy
CO2 – Industrial processes
N2O – Agriculture
N2O – Waste

Overview of number of extrapolated values by indicator for the years 2017-2019

LUCF

LUCF data have a higher uncertainty and can distort the series strongly.

Proposal: Exclude LUCF from totals and include separate LUCF indicator.

Third-party data vs. country-reported data

PIK published two main series: one that relies on third-party data and another that relies on country-reported data. The third-party data is a smoother series.

Proposal: use third-party data

Units

Convert all GHG data into CO2e for comparison or report in tons of respective GHG. Issue with GWP that differs.

Proposal: Report all GHGs in CO2e for comparability.

Extrapolated values

Use extrapolated values for latest year for some countries or keep missing values